


Seventeen Days

by vangoghingtohell



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Planet, Alien Species, Alien System, Angst, Langst, Lions, M/M, Outer Space, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 08:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10805481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vangoghingtohell/pseuds/vangoghingtohell
Summary: The team visits an alien system called Lucidum - famous for light shows caused by a belt of crystallised meteors - to help the Lucidans by destroying a Galra base.They stay, on the word of Lucidum's ruler. They shouldn't have.Here, on the planet of Longa Dies the sunlight hours are twenty earth days, and the darkness hours are twenty as well. After it happens, they lose track of them, until night falls again, out of nowhere, bringing with it a heavy, unforeseen, and crushing darkness.





	Seventeen Days

**Author's Note:**

> Me: *joins the voltron fandom* Wow these characters are all so pure and amazing and I love them.  
> Me, five minutes later: Time for soMe aNGST

It’s been 17 days. 17 earth days, that is. The planet below, Longa Dies, hadn’t even undergone a full rotation by then. Three more earth days before the night fell across the relatively smooth surface of the planet, the furthest in the Lucidum system.

It was the furthest of seven planets, three of which were inhabited. Lucidum’s sun, Luceat, burned with such ferocity and violence that the surfaces of the first three planets were reduced to uninhabitable, burning husks that even Venus (in the Terra – earth – system) would be jealous of. Longa Dies and her siblings were protected by Lucidum’s primary attraction – the Lucidum belt. The whole system was named after this asteroid belt, as an abundance of crystals embedded in the system created a beautiful sight, bouncing around the light of their violent sun.

Visitors to the Lucidum system generally hopped between the three planets, as a concoction of mysterious gases on each planet created three different light shows that were awe-inspiringly, breathtakingly beautiful. Even now, from the windows of the castle ship, the belt dominated their vision, stretching around them, large enough to prevent the heat and solar emissions of Luceat from obliterating the surfaces of the planets that cowered behind it.

When they’d first reached the Lucidum System, two weeks before the incident, everything had gone as planned. They’d successfully removed the Galra installation on the fourth planet, harvesting the unused quintessence of the fatal wasteland.

But they’d stayed on intel from Lucidum’s ruler. A short time on Longa Dies with the high council had confirmed Allura’s suspicions that there may be more Galra posts hidden amongst the colossal belt.

 They shouldn’t have.

\--

_25 Days ago – 6 days after arriving at Lucidum and locating and destroying the Galra installation._

The castle ship hissed and groaned as it tussled with a storm on the planet, thrusters attempting to compensate the buffeting winds of what was reportedly the worst storm to hit the SpacePort in weeks. It’d been night on the planet for thirteen days, would be for seven more. Finally, the ship touched down, stabilisers firing as landing legs extended, landing on the pad with loud, hollow thuds. Upon stepping out, they were greeted by an alien wearing an overly gaudy outfit, a robe trailing behind him.

“Welcome, Paladins, to Longa Dies. We cannot thank you enough for what you have one for our people. Come, we must talk, inside, even the mice and birds here can hear us speak”

\--

_24 Days ago_

“K-Keith. I, um, I..”  
“Spit it out, Lance.”  
“ _I like you”_

_\--_

_21 Days ago_

They’d been keeping track of everything in earth days, as they always did. The lights of the castle simulated 25 hour days, which was the cycle of the system’s native inhabitants (they followed the same cycle on all three planets). It’s been four days since Lance confessed to his crush of almost a year, and while Keith had kissed back straight away, heavy against the wall, he hadn’t said it back. Even now, as they lay in bed, a tangle of limbs wrapped tightly underneath a thick blanket that kept out the cold of the storm – it was always cold and dark, would be for another five-ish earth days – Lance found his mind wandering. _Why hasn’t he said it back yet? Is this all a lie? A trick?_

_\--_

_20 Days ago_

A smell peck on Lance’s nose solicited a round of surprised reaction around the table, from everyone except Pidge and Allura (a high five: “Called it!”). Since then, Keith had been much more open with his affections, but the niggling of doubt that Lance had always felt, been feeling for a long time, was still there. He’d always felt like a seventh wheel, sometimes more that he was a hindrance than a help.

Keith could feel something amiss with Lance, so he did his best to make Lance feel cared for, loved, like the man he’d been crushing on since the beginning of their respective stints as Paladins, not knowing that a little thing like not outright saying the words to lance was what was causing it. The two of them distracted one another during the nights that seemed to stretch on endlessly (because they did).

\--

_17 Days ago_

“I’ve assigned Lance this mission to scout out sector Alpha 478-B of the belt. It shouldn’t take much more than a few hours, simply running some preliminary deep scans for any anomalies. The rest of you will train here with Coran. The High chancellor and I have to talk.” Allura had quickly briefed them at breakfast that day, after the seven of them awoken early to watch the sun rise.

Within an hour, Lance and Keith were alone in Blue’s hangar.

One last kiss, and it was time for Lance to go.

“Bye Keith, love you!” Lance’s face reddened when he realised what he’d just said.  
“Lance, I lo-”  
“YO KEITH! HURRY UP! YOU DON’T WANNA PISS OFF CORAN!”  
“YEAH! COMING! Bye, Lance, see you tomorrow”

Before Lance could say anything, Keith was gone, running, vanishing down the passage.

The roar of Blue’s initial launch engines filled Keith’s ears as the airlock shut behind him. _Goodbye, Lance. I love you too._

The roar of Blue’s engines underneath Lance reassured him. He felt like he belonged. _They forgot your birthday.  
That’s okay, Blue. You remembered._

\--

_Present_

Three days remained until Longa Dies would see the light of Luceat on the north horizon, bouncing off the Lucidum belt.

Keith swore fiercely under his breath. Outside, the Lucidum belt sparkled, a thing of beauty, taunting him, laughing at him.

The castle ship had left Longa Dies three earth days after Lance’s scheduled return. The silence in his hangar bay had been deafening, five of them waiting with presents and cake, as was Voltron tradition. Keith had waited next to them, holding a crystalline rose he had found in the markets of the Palace City.

Now, they searched, running scans, taking their lions out, hoping that one of them would feel the presence of Blue. Nothing.

Night fell once more, bringing the total time they’d spent in the system to 34 earth days. Twenty earth days ago, Lance had vanished. Eight days before that, Lance ad confessed to him, in the heat of the moment after destroying the Galra.

And that was when they found him.

\--

_Lance’s Expedition – 20 Days ago_

The purple lasers had come out of nowhere, the station folding out of nothingness to launch a barrage of fire against him. He retaliated with everything he had, satisfied to see the structure implode on itself, but not before two more lasers left their turrets. He felt the impact before it happened. Blue lurched and screamed inside his mind, curling to protect him, and then suddenly he was out in space, and Blue was floating away from him and his helmet began to malfunction the as the second laser, weakened after bouncing off Blue hit it. He gasped for air until there wasn’t any more. Blackness took his vision. _They’ll be fine without me. They won’t even notice._

\--

_Present_

They’d found blue, cracked and broken, a husk of her former self, floating amongst the asteroids. And she’d led them to where he lay, broken, nestled amongst a cluster of crystals.

The others broke down, but Keith’s scream was inhuman. He was clutching Lance’s body as soon as it was brought on board, screaming into his hair, holding on tight, desperately attempting to bring him back.

“Keith. Keith, he’s gone.” Pidge’s voice cut through his tears, laden with guilt and sympathy at seeing Keith this way.

“NO! NO! HE CAN’T BE! I NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO TELL HIM! HE TOLD ME THAT HE LOVED ME AND I NEVER SAID IT BACK! I DIDN’T EVEN TELL HIM THAT I LIKED HIM! When he told me that he had a crush on me, I didn’t say it back, and then he told me he loved me and I didn’t say it back. I didn’t… I didn’t.”

Keith dissolved into sobs, letting go of Lance and curling into himself, away from the touches of the others.

“He knows, Keith, he knows.”  
“No, Allura. He doesn’t. I could feel it. He was down when he left. He probably thought we forgot his birthday. He probably didn’t care whether he made it out or not. And now he’ll never get a chance to know.

\--

When the castle of lions finally broke free of the gravity of the Lucidum system, it was one Paladin lighter. Blue lay, dejected, in her hangar, and the groaning of melancholy metal filled the castle. It was oddly silent without Lance. Keith vanished into his room, not coming out to eat for days at a time. A darkness had settled over them all.

\--

On Longa Dies stands a memorial, made from solid crystal. At its base lays a single crystalline flower, set in stone, next to a plaque telling the story of the Paladin of Voltron who gave up his life to protect the people of Lucidum.  It’s a cheap marketplace flower, but it was always meant for Lance.

Up, in the Lucidum belt, on one lonely asteroid, is a broken helmet, trapped in a crystal that slowly grows over it, concealing it and keeping it safe.

And in one ship, one small ship working tirelessly to defeat the ever-growing clutches of the Galra empire, is a boy with a red jacket and a mullet, who cries into his bed every night, clutching a locket with a lock of brown hair inside, who hides himself away in a chamber to talk with the remnants of a consciousness, and tries not to think of the cold, lifeless body lying in the ship’s cryo-pod.

Maybe, one day, the Blue Paladin would rise again.

Until then, the seven of them would fight on (Slav somewhat reluctantly as always). Together. Without him. And, contradictory to what Lance would have one believe, they felt the gaping hole where he used to stand every day. Every single day.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so basically I wrote fluff (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10788672 shameless plug) and it felt weird so to clear my system I wrote this.
> 
> Thanks to my beta reader who saved my ass.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed it!


End file.
